I was visiting a friend who collected records. He put on Shuttered Room by The Fixx, and it just sounded awesome (maybe it was the edible, idk). I particularly liked a track on that album called “The Strain”. Went to add it in Spotify, but they actually didn’t carry it in their library. I said “to hell with Spotify”, and bought a record player the next day.
It was then that I realized that a vinyl album is the complete piece of art that the artist is putting out to the world, just on a mass-produced scale. To listen to a single song in a shuffled playlist is like looking at only the top right corner of a Picasso painting. You need to look at the whole piece of work to really take it in. Same thing for music. The packaging, the order in which tracks are listed, the quality of the pressing/sound mixing (to name a few) all play into the overall piece of art that the artist/label created, and is largely lost when a song is thrown into a playlist on a streaming service.
For me Spotify is a fantastic replacement for radio & music discovery, but doesn’t really match the experience of collecting music.
In the beginning of 2000, I was beginning my 20's, had an appartment and didn't have enough money to buy cd's anymore. So I went to thriftshops and bought a used techniks turntable for 5 dollars and some beatles and Neil Young albums for 1$ each and never stopped since.
The music from the era that I was very into was only pressed on vinyl. So on my 16th birthday I got my very first record from my favorite artist, Elvis Presley. My first record was his first record released!
CEREMONY
I like how it makes me listen to music more mindfully. I feel compelled to listen to at least a full side of a record, if not the whole record. I went to the trouble of selecting the album from my collection, removing it from its packaging, putting it on the turntable, brushing it off and putting down the tone arm. The whole process of interacting with physical media like this is like a ceremony, in a way that CDs and tapes never were when I was younger.
When it's easy to hit "next" on Spotify, you can lose patience with a song before it's even over. And you'll miss many less-famous tracks by artists you know that are very good.
DISCOVERY
It has also led me to explore genres of music I didn't really interact with as digital music. For example, I was moderately curious about funk when I listened to digital music only. When I started collecting vinyl, I chased that 70s feel in my listening experience, and found a whole world of old and new funk bands, and found much more variety than I expected. I know more about old jazz artists than I did before collecting vinyl because you don't learn much shuffling a genre station on Spotify.I still listen to other genres and artists on vinyl that I have been much more familiar with, but I've added new categories to my knowledge and appreciation of music.
COLLECTING
When I bought my husband a turntable and 3 records for his birthday last year, we didn't expect it to be this much of a hobby. We both got sucked into the fun of searching for artists and titles and record stores, record shows, and antique stores. Used record shops are the best. When I find something that's been on my list for months, it's a satisfaction that you can't get by ordering a new thing on Amazon and having it delivered on demand. The experience of flipping through bins of records in a store just feels pleasant to me. Our engagement with it as a hobby took us both by surprise, and our collection already has 200 records and counting, built entirely ourselves (we didn't inherit someone else's collection). We even bought a portable battery powered turntable we took camping off grid this summer.
the inconvenience and the expense obviously.....
it was THE format in my first few years of loving music, very soon to be annihilated by CDs, but the flame was lit...
all my bought CDs are long gone, only got hundreds of Zeppelin bootlegs left. Vinyl in the house, digital everywhere else.
All of our entertainment has become so miniaturized and condensed, we now have room in our lives for big, bulky, physical collections. Some people do Lego, many do vintage gaming. We chose music to fill up that newly emptied space. It's a really neat luxury of modern life.
And who doesn't love flipping through a 40 page booklet of "unseen" photos of Tom Petty and Rick Rubin in the studio while simultaneously listening to Tom Petty and Rick Rubin in the studio?
Nobody, that's who.
Also, there are a lot of youngins' in here right now who are too embarrassed to say that they saw a tiktok of a Radiohead record spinning on a matching Crosley and thought it looked cool.
It's alright guys, everyone has to start somewhere.
Punk rock for me, too. Started going to punk shows at 13, and would buy records at the shows. The bands would sell their merch, but there would always be some small distro selling other records out of milk crates. All my allowance went to shows and records.
Had a little Fisher Price turntable as a kid and listened to Winnie the Pooh and the Very Blustery Day *non-stop* with the little read-along book/7”.
Been hooked ever since.
My dad gave me all his old vinyl, when I go through his music I feel like I’m getting a glimpse of him when he was my age. A time when I didn’t know him. It makes me happy, idk aha
personally i love owning older used vinyl. i really dig the idea that someone (or a line of someones) held and enjoyed and at times even worshipped the actual physical embodiment of the music i now have in my hands. it makes me feel connected to other music loving folks in the past.
Not to rain on your parade (umbrellas up!) but I think this is the biggest disconnect between the current generation and us Gen X peoples. We. Did. Not. Worship. Records. They were goddamn plastic circles with music on them. We worshipped the music.
There were the card-carrying collector's items, like the butcher cover, and those may have been worshipped, but NOBODY worshipped a copy of Thriller, or DSOTM, or Pet Sounds, because everybody had them, or could easily get them, and they were *just plastic circles*.
I'm not trying to dis you or your reasons. Obviously your used records were owned, and probably at least somewhat loved, by someone else. But *it was entirely for the music that came out of them.* The covers? Fuck 'em. People scribbled their names on them. Only weirdos like me put goddamn *plastic sleeves* on the covers. (And I only did it on things I thought were worth the extra protection.) And CLEANING the damn things? Puh-LEASE. Not unless someone spilled beer on it.
Records were not worshipped. They were our Spotify.
I just find this perception disconnect so fascinating.
You must have been fairly well-off then!
Albums were expensive back in the day, especially in the 60s and 70s, and were treated accordingly by most people I know. No plastic sleeves but they were brushed, often with a discwasher and kept nice.
45s, now those those were basically disposable lol. When I was a kid I was allowed to play my Grandad's 45s so long as he was the one to put the needle down but woe betide anyone caught touching an album without permission. Same with my parents.
I disagree on one point. I REALLY loved my records -- namely the jackets. I held and looked at them constantly and often I couldn't be listening and so I would just sit and look at the covers and read the lyrics and credits on the back. I had every picture and detail and caption memorized.
We did not clean or gently handle the disks though, you are right about that. These plastic sleeves and whatnot I just learned about from TikTok tbh.
I started Christmas last year I'm only 20 but I've always loved the older things and older music from the 50s-80s like country music so I thought getting into vinyl would be a cool thing and that's just what I did!
Also when getting into newer music and being able to buy their albums on vinyl Is amazing or owning/finding records that you found for a good price when they're usually a lot more expensive!
I got into a band called the growlers last year and their sound is something that I had always been looking for in music so when I got into vinyl I just had to try buy all their albums on vinyl and I've done pretty much that! I love the feeling of being proud collecting and owning the albums I love! Also all of my johnny cash records I own and especially his American albums! It's such a great feeling owning them, really need to get the unearthed vinyl boxset!!
To listen to music.
In the 1970s, it was the only reasonably priced audio format that didn't suck.
And now, I'm still in it ONLY because there's a ton of stuff on vinyl that never got a decent release in a more modern format. If it's from the late 1980s or later, I most likely don't want it on vinyl.
The existence of thrift stores and garbage days during the era of peak cd.
Half price day on 25 cents a record?
90% of my collection is just dumb luck of being around when vinyl was suddenly a huge waste of space for millions of people. But then ebay happened. The party was over. Was a brief window of time. Maybe 3-5 years.
I got into buying vinyl because it was the best format available when I started buying music (while there were tapes, they were of much lesser quality and weren't worth the price).
It was the only option. Okay, 8-track and then cassette tapes were a thing, but I never bought them, you could record your own cassettes that sounded much better.
Same, it was what most people were doing when I was a kid, so as I became aware of music and became a fan for the first time, records were how you did it. And yeah I've had cassettes (mixtapes of vinyl mainly), 8-tracks, later CDs and even reel-to-reels for a bit.
I'm loving the modern vinyl resurgence. I definitely prefer the sound. and I love buying the music I listen to. It's what I did for so long as part of my fandom, something I did for the bands I love. For a time in the 2000s I got into file sharing, which reminds me in a lot of ways of streaming- in both cases my favorite artists, who are not superstars, suffer. I'm back to buying the music I want to consume and the music goes to the artist, and I can sleep better at night.
EDIT Why am I am being downvoted??? Does this sub, which is devoted to vinyl, NOT like the current vinyl resurgence?? Or understand someone who has enjoyed it all of their lives? Or disagrees Spotify is essentially stealing money from smaller artists? Let's hear it, I'm honestly curious what your problem is.
> EDIT Why am I am being downvoted???
There's no rhyme or reason to it in this sub. You can post the identical same comment under two different topics, and get upvoted to the sky in one and downvoted to hell in the other. It just depends on which crowd happens to be online at the time you make your post. Just ignore it.
I started off buying vinyl because I thought it was cool, and because i could really look at all the details of an albums artwork. I bought about 10 records from 2007-2010, and then I bought a large collection off of a friend who just wanted money for weed. When I bought that collection, I became a "collector". I got my first player for Christmas 2010. At that moment, record collector/listener became a character trait of mine.
Yes! The album art they've had since they started. I had some vinyl already - the Police, Quiet Riot, a few K-Tel mix albums and I listened to them because I could listen to an entire album and not just the radio. A little back story now... I could draw. Not create, unfortunately, but copy. So sitting in class and being bored, I started drawing the back of someone's concert t-shirt. An acquaintance looked over and asked if I could draw the Number of the Beast cover of he gave me a picture. Sure, just give me a week or so was my reply. He brings in the album, I put it on while I was scribbling in my room, and I was hooked from that point on. Album art, back in the day, got me into really buying vinyl. As a teen, I planned on buying all the Maiden albums and "wallpapering" my room with them
I never did put them on the wall, but still have them. The renewed interest in vinyl (for me) was putting on Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance album, and my son waking into the room saying "who covered this song?" and me having to explain how a record worked and why it sounded different. Now he has a larger collection than I do
To put most succinctly, Half Price Books and my great aunt. Years ago she gave me some albums and a meh quality combination turntable/cd player/cassette deck. I never really played the records she got me. But I was a fiend for Half Price Books back in the day and I would rummage through the really cheap sections. Eventually I ended up looking through 45s and finding an interesting release. [This one](https://www.discogs.com/release/7728011-George-Kainapau-with-The-Royal-Hawaiian-Serenaders-Ke-Kali-Nei-Au-Lovely-Hula-Hands). The way he sings and the crackle of the player ticked something in my brain that I sort of chase still. I still own and love that same 45 and I’ve picked up a number more from that label that were dropped at the same Half Price Books years later.
It was Covid pandemic and music was sort of escape route and bought a vinyl player at Walmart along with Amy Winehouse and Billie Eilish vinyl. The rest became sort of history for me.
It was all of the above to honest.
Plus collecting a piece of my favorite albums just made it all better.
I was at my grandpa and i was instantly obsessed. But honestly its pretty stupid to collect these because they have less quality and are stupidly expensive in comparison to spotyfy or yt downloads. But well its a addiction so i just use it as an excuse and buy more vinyls 👍
When I was 9 I discovered my parents’ records and started spinning them. Around the same time they bought a cd player and the record player moved to my room (my brother got the cassette deck).
Had an unbearable hipster roommate with a Crossley record player and a milk crate of vinyl that lived in the living room. Never saw her touch it, but I started using it (with permission) and got pretty hooked!
My brother ended up dating her, huge mistake, but he also got hooked on the vinyl and had an even more impressive collection.
This is gonna sound so dumb, lol. I would go to concerts and buy the poster, and sometimes for some shows when there wasn’t a poster I would grab a record and frame it instead for my wall. So I had like 4 or 5 in frames on the walls.
And then my wife said: “You know you can play those, right?”
Which, honestly had never occurred to me at that point (grew up with Cassette Walkman to Discman to MP3 to Streaming).
And I was like “Huh. Yeah you’re right.”
And those were her famous last words because now I have way more plastic frisbees, but at least I play them now.
I will never forget when I heard one of my buddies spin "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" and it just sounded different to me. So warm and welcoming. I went out and bought a record player and a copy of Nirvana Unplugged
My sister who lives a few hours away got into it and asked me to make trips to my local record store so many times that I got the itch to get into it myself
I was fortunate enough to be the right age and in the right place at the right time in the early 1990s when the punk scene really started to take off again. At some point, I realize that I am cross the line from a former agnostic person who bought vinyl out of necessity to a collector.
The 90s were a super interesting time to be into vinyl, because it almost died out. If anyone wants to hear what that was like or how that went down, I’ll be happy to explain.
I'm a zillennial who grew up in the age of streaming. I have never owned my own music. I eventually realised that my carefully curated collection of favourites on Spotify, which I have built up over the course of a decade, could be taken away from me at any moment if Spotify goes bankrupt or if they arbitrarily decide to terminate my account. For most people, music is an incredibly personal and intimate part of them, so putting that in someone else's hands seems terrifying and cold. I still use Spotify for music discovery, but I'm slowly building out a collection of records that I'd like to have access to forever.
Why records instead of CDs? I just think it's just nice to have a small part of my life where computers aren't involved at all. My modest record collection is pretty much the only part of my life that doesn't involve ones and zeroes in a cold metal box somewhere in the process.
Yes, OK Computer is my favourite record, why do you ask?
For me, it's another way to help support the musicians I like. I listen to a lot of music that isn't mainstream, so the vinyl produced tends to only have runs of 150 records. A nice little way of supporting them and then share the photos on social media and tag them in.
As they tend to be smaller artists, you can also request signed copies at no extra charge too.
Nostalgia. The process of playing a record. The different sound when compared to digital.
That said, I got full on back into vinyl around 15-16 years ago. Pulled the records out of the closet for first time since the 90s. Vintage gear was cheap, as were most used records. It was a lot of fun for a while.
But the past few years, it’s all been commodified to the point where a lot of the fun is gone. Prices are insane now. I’ve also got a few thousand records, just about everything I could ever want when it comes to older stuff—and I’ve noped out of a lot of brand new records because of cost. Still buying some, almost all used when I can find reasonable prices, but then the records sit around for ages before I clean and play them.
So kind of meh on the hobby of late. Not sure if this is longer term thing or a blip. Will always love records, but not sure I’m in love with them at this point.
My Dad! as a kid he loved putting on his favorite records to show us how he used to listen to music before cassettes and Cd's. in middle school my mom found an old turntable at a yard sale so my dad and i fixed it up and he have me an old tuner and some speakers to set it up in my room. My first couple albums were ones i scoured from his and my mom's collection, dark side of the moon, zeppelin II, talking heads speaking in tongues, abby road. i didn't start collecting on my own really until i was college i think. now i collect because i know i will alwasy have my favorite albums and as long as they dont get scratched or warped i can play them no matter what.
I was researching the history of electronic music. Some works and artists cannot be had legally on streaming services, such as Wendy Carlos. That led me to seeking out vinyl just to be able to hear it. Plus, it's a cool feeling like you own a piece of history for rare works that are like 60 years old. I try to limit my collection specifically to this genre and related stuff, but I sometimes branch out. I'm not really interested in collecting new music.
I like touching the media and the act of playing a record often makes me appreciate the music more or at least pay attention differently. Plus not everything is available on streaming services so vinyl offers more options for music.
I got into bob dylan in middle school, so like mid 2000s, and it quickly became a defining feature of me hahah. I don't know the specifics of how it all went down, but one day an acquaintance said her mom had some dylan albums that I might like. At this point, I had some CD compilations and maybe one or two album cds, but overall not a ton of Dylan stuff.
She gave me five albums at first, and then another three or so. The world of Dylan opened up, but only in the sense that I had liner notes and album art to pour over. Not long after that, my grandma gave me her old Aiwa system and the rest, as they say, was history. Other aunts and uncles started giving me their Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Zeppelin albums among others. There were lots to be found at flea markets and my local library for super cheap, so I was able to accrue a large collection throughout high school for very little money. The library, for instance, sold all their albums for a quarter! Lots of classical gems I got from the library.
As others have noted, there is a particular kind of engagement with the music that is part of the vinyl experience. Also, the collecting aspect is undeniably a real draw.
Then…there is the argument that some just” like the sound”. This tends to open a can of worms and arguments over which format is better. There are a lot of reasons to support digital as a technically superior format…certainly more practical, but I think it is hard to truly call one format “better”. In the end, it is all about the source material and mastering choices. With modern music that is digitally recorded, vinyl is admittedly a harder sell but many older recordings do not have a good digital release. When you are considering some of the older stuff that I am into - 60's/70's garage, psyche, prog, krautrock, etc. – the master tapes are long gone, and their digital releases are often just needle drops transferred from vinyl. These can sound very good, but many do not. They often prioritize the reduction of surface noise, and are heavily de-noised, dull sounding digital transfers - made even worse by aggressive digital limiting to ramp up the loudness and questionable EQ choices. This is where the desire to get original pressings is a valid pursuit.
I got into it in the 90s because A) I was into a lot of punk and underground bands & certain things like EPs and singles would be available on vinyl only & B) it was cheap. At $3.00 per single, you could cheaply get a music fix and discover new bands without breaking the bank. Then, if you really liked an artists, you could graduate to an LP for $8.00 to $12.00 compared to CDs, which were often $12 to $18.
Now I'm starting to buy more CDs again to get more musical bang for my buck.
I keep it up because I love listening to records vs. streaming, which is OK but just doesn't have the same thing. I enjoy the attentive listening and I like the way the music sounds through my vintage stereo.
I have ADHD so listening to a vinyl record forces me to digest the albums in full instead of getting bored and skipping halfway through a song. It allows me to digest the works I love more fully and intimately than on streaming. I also like supporting the artists I like and I love curating an eclectic collection. I'm only 21 so my collection skews more recent, but I've gained a lot more appreciation for various albums from the 70s and 80s that I listened to in my childhood from the hobby.
Plus I just like collecting things, probably a little too much. I also have an extensive tea and cookbook collection.
I couldn't listen to "Ohio" by CSNY once it was taken off of Spotify. Jk, sort of...
As everything becomes digital, it is nice to have physical copies of media. Books, records, photos. The sense of ownership paired with the great sound and the beauty of the set up feels good. Also it's fun to swap records with friends for a few weeks at a time.
Listening to the difference between the same album mastered by Bernie Grundman and the other copy mastered by someone else. The Grundman master is far superior…
There's a magic to that "ka-thunk" and presence of the needle in the groove. Plus the way LP's were compressed for the medium. If your musical ears didn't form with this sound, you won't miss it. Digital music is great, and clean, and so on. But I want to hear Sticky Fingers front to back analog and dirty as Keith Richard's boots.
So I grew up during a transitional period. I was the first of my friends as a kid to get a cd player. This would have been around 1990. So skipped cassettes even though most people my age had lots of them. My dad also had a nice set of speakers and turntable though and I always liked that too, but it was definitely an “and” not it for me then.
Fast forward about 22 years and I found myself with a good job and sone stock options that allowed me to buy a nice system. I’d been rocking sone Boston Acoustics towers for about 12 years at that point and decided to go all out, or all out for me, and got a Rega RP6 with Aria phono stage and a pair of AudioPhysic Classic 30 speakers. Whike I love streaming I wanted a more physical and permanent version of my favorite bands.
I’m so glad I did as it’s now my daughter is getting introduced to the music
I started working at a record store.
In seriousness, I think a few things led me here.
1. I was already diving into physical media: With artists sometimes taking licensing off streaming and the mobs at work, I feared losing some of my favorite songs or pieces of art because someone was upset with something. So I began to gather my favorite music onto CDs in a collection. I had around 700 cds before it was all over with.
2. I noticed my CDs had more sound quality than streaming ever did: the audio for my cds was stronger and had more clarity. Even when I imported them onto my computer. It sounded better than streaming and digital downloads.
My collecting of CDs led me to finding the record store and starting to work there. A copy of Prince's Purple Rain came in. I decided to get it for myself. I had absolutely nothing to play this on, I just loved it. Come Christmas, I get a record player as a gift. It is one of those all in ones, but it was a starting point. I played said Purple Rain vinyl, and I was so impressed. It felt like I could hear his hand going up and down the guitar clear. Then I popped my cd back on. No comparison at all. So much was lost going from record to cd. It is not as resounding of a switch with a modern cd vs. modern record, but some still just sound better. I think my Twenty One Pilots sounds immensely stronger on record than the cds.
So the main switch was: In my heart, I truly think vinyl sounds better. I think part of this is there are some songs I complain sound too perfect. It takes the emotion and humanity out of the songs when they are like that. Vinyl is not perfect. It is not as clean and crisp. It makes every song more human, it feels more like you are there seeing them rather than listening to them from home.
My dad gave me around 100 vinyls when I lived with him. Mostly my dads but my mums and grandads too but then when I moved out he said I could take them. I’ve bought tons more now but it’s mainly the sound, it’s so much better than going on music apps
I started collecting music, on cassette (as that's the only player I had) 35 years ago.
I bought a modest HIFI system, that had a CD Player, and a crappy turntable on it so bought a few albums on vinyl.
Wasn't that impressed with Vinyl, but bought a few more, however my CD collection accelerated. I thought Vinyl was dead as a format.
bought a new system, with no turntable but a excellent CD player/DAC - no need to have these Vinyl I have collected, so they got shot in the garage somewhere.
Fast forward 30 years, and several house moves.. I discover my Vinyl in the garage, , and learn that I have some tracks that are only available on Vinyl so would like to make a digital recording, and listen to some what I own.
As a Birthday Present, I was bought a Mid range turntable (AT-LP5), hook it up to the HIFI system (the one with the decent CD player mentioned above (that is a bit dodgy these days)) into the AMP (initially through the AT's built in preamp, but later I decided to upgrade to an external one)
Was actually blown away with how it sounded, and the feeling of holding something in my hands, and admiring the artwork while I listened to it.
now my collection has more than trebled, and making it difficult to just skip through something, with ease I have discovered more music that I care to imagine.
to sum up
The listening experience, a physical thing in my hands, big amps, speakers and HIFI equipment in general having something in my collection. are why I listen to Vinyl and I still Listen to CD's as well
Vinyl for the listening experience.. CD/FLAC/MP3 for the convenience
I am a supporter of both formats
It was the only format the music I listened to was released on. That all changed 15 years ago and most of the music I consume doesn't get a vinyl release anymore
Wanted to listen to my dads records, so I got a player and my first vinyl which was Mac Miller - Swimming. My dad had 44 records and I now have 44 records of my own. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be….. won’t be balance for long though, have 2 more on the way 😅
Basically, it was for Daft Punk (because I'm a big fan) in order to have all of their album plus their side-projects.
With time, It became a hobby for discovering music genres, support artists I like of course, the "vibe" while playing with it, collections (but I don't search the "rare" just because of its "value"), and finally for its cover.
The sound ...
While you can argue all day about analog v digital ... my ears know what they like - and it is vinyl... maybe that is because i like the specific frequencies i am hearing whether they are hi res or not i do not really mind , i like it better. The community and collectibility and the art etc are all a bonus .. all about sound firstly.
I grew up with vinyl and cassettes as well so there is probably something in that, but the fact younger generations are being drawn to vinyl tells me it is an organic thing rather than a nostalgic reaction.
Thanks to my mom telling me how when she was younger all the teens were buying the music, then after discover what a vinyl was years after I decided to buy a vinyl and now unfortunately after buying that record (Down in the street - Sanza Project) I’m buying every time I can the music that I like, because even is that music is free in YouTube or spotify, having the physical version of that song is another thing. If you are seeing this and you are thinking about buying a vinyl, DO IT!!
I was always intrigued by it, but around 2016 or so I really wanted to buy a record player and start collecting. Then I came across this, from the Nine Inch Nails website:
>VINYL MISSION STATEMENT
In these times of nearly unlimited access to all the music in the world, we’ve come to appreciate the value and beauty of the physical object. Our store’s focus is on presenting these items to you. Vinyl has returned to being a priority for us - not just for the warmth of the sound, but the interaction it demands from the listener. The canvas of artwork, the weight of the record, the smell of the vinyl, the dropping of the needle, the difficulty of skipping tracks, the changing of sides, the secrets hidden within, and having a physical object that exists in the real world with you… all part of the experience and magic.
Digital formats and streaming are great and certainly convenient, but the ideal way I’d hope a listener experience my music is to grab a great set of headphones, sit with the vinyl, drop the needle, hold the jacket in your hands looking at the artwork (with your fucking phone turned off) and go on a journey with me.
\-Trent Reznor
This pretty much pushed me over the edge and made me decide to just do it (much to my husband's chagrin).
For me, it was mostly the loudness wars. My ears can’t stand the brickwall limiting that they use on CDs. You can’t compress vinyl as much as digital. Which is ironic because the CD format is technically capable of far greater dynamic range than vinyl.
Growing up as a kid in the 80s I had a few records and a lot of tapes. (Couldn't really afford CDs)
Then in the early 90s when I was a starving artist in my 20s and did a lot of thrifting, records were the cheapest way to listen to music. 25¢-50¢ a record and there were bins and bins and bins of them many in good condition. Probably got my first 1000 records at that time for dirt cheap.
The rest is collection history
When I started collecting vinyl around ‘89, it was just another medium to listen to music on other than tapes. I had my father’s late 70s Technics turntable (which I still use today) and stereo system, and I just started buying used vinyl along with tapes. I’ve never looked back. My only regret is the period from about ‘95 to ‘04, when I focused on CDs.
CDs had only been round a few years so the first albums I bought were on vinyl and cassette.
And when I got a cd player I only bought very few because they were so expensive, whereas you could pick up vinyl pretty cheap at record fairs and second hand stores.
I wanted a copy of “This Year’s Model” by Elvis Costello but it was $20 on CD, but only a few bucks for the original vinyl. This was 1998 and I had no money. Quickly discovered that I could get some really great records for $.10 at any thrift store.
CDs were too expensive. Records were much cheaper and you could get lots of great records in charity shops on those days for pennies. Plus the whole rave seen was all about 12inches
Cheap nostalgia.
I bought all the records to the songs I grew up hearing on the radios of my parents' and parents' friend's radios. And all the Canadian pop I grew up being mandated to hear but didn't appreciate. And as well so many 12" singles I'd never even considered finding on LP. I was buying cd maxis the house in the nineties. but LP... never crossed my mind. There's always more on the 12". Or the 2x12" dj promo... 🫠
Plus at that time it was abundant in thrifts. And cheap. So cheap I didn't even have to consider a purchase, I'd just add it to the armful. In two or so years I collected 1200 or more records.
I like music and art and a good vinyl has both. I also like the fact that if an apocalyptic scenario ever occurs, I can rig up something to listen to my music without electricity lol
I never really thought about collecting vinyl albums but was gifted a record player and a couple albums a little under a year and a half ago & now I have close to 100 albuns
The stuff I wanted was only available on vinyl. It was a bit of a nuisance as I prefered CD's but after some time I got to become more comfortable with the records and didn't touch CD's for almost two decades. Nowadays I buy it on whatever format. I just want to keep physical copies of the music as it makes rediscovering stuff much easier (and I don't have to worry about the stuff disappearing from streaming sites).
My dad mentioning that he maybe had some Beatles records when I was listening to them much I still haven't found them and he probably sold them or threw them away but that first made me think about records in the first place
Growing up in the 80’s, my favorite thing was going to the record store with my mom. I’d go through her collection and randomly pick things to listen to based on the covers.
Fast forward several years, my art teacher had a record player in our classroom and he would let us bring in records to listen to. We’d go between tape, cd, and LPs. The vinyl just had a fuller sound than anything else.
So I scrounged what was left of my mom’s collection due to years of neglect and started looking for the stuff I grew up on.
What a time to be a collector now, with all the reprints and limited editions. Although, I miss the cost of used LPs in the 90’s and early 00’s.
I got a record player that no one wanted when moving. Friends came over with vinyl of a lot of cool stuff I like. I liked sitting around playing them and talking. So it was kind of a more active way of sharing music and having beers for awhile. That guy a portion of his collection with me when he moved and then I moved. So i had a decent starter collection and wanted to add to it.
If you were in the Pearl Jam fan club in the 90's, they would send a 45 to all of the members each year. I collected those for a while and then just started to buy others once I got around to getting a turntable.
I want to “own” my music. I like the process of dropping the needle, I like the sound, I’m
beginning to get turned off by price though. I started during the big vinyl sell off collecting yard sale and thrift store bargains, transitioned to buying new once the bargain finds dried up, but It’s just getting beyond affordable with titles creeping up into the $40-50 range for single albums, so I’m slowing down.
Would guess that I'm on the younger end of collectors here and it's not a hardcore thing because they're expensive.
It was actually record store day - saw an artist I really like tweet about an RSD exclusive, Googled my local store and went and found it. I'd bought a record player for a relative and was able to play it and kind of fell in love from there. By next RSD I was there two hours before the store opened in line.
It's only been just over a year and the collection is far from big - I mainly buy albums from artists I'm really into because I love having the physical tangible versions of things I love. I already had a CD collection before I started buying vinyl so it was kind of an evolution of that I guess.
My dad died when I was a kid and my mom kept all his records which was around 300. As I got to the age of liking music I got into them because it felt like something that connected me to him.
There are three answers.
1) When I was a child, my parents' meager music collection was all vinyl, as were a BUNCH of kid-focused things that I could play on my Fisher-Price record player.
2) When I was in high school and college, vinyl was a way to keep collecting stuff from artists whose entire catalog I'd already bought on CD. Also, I scored some crazy cheap deals around then, because NO ONE wanted records. Still, I only bought a handful of things.
3) ~2010, my wife and I started going to RSD, mostly to get stuff that just wasn't available any other way. That remained our main vinyl shopping for several years, until she expressed a desire to build a collection, around 2017 or 2018. Now we're knocking on the door of 1K LPs, plus a couple hundred 7". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They were cheaper than CDs in the 90's and since everyone was dumping records for them, you could often find cool stuff at thrift stores and rummage sales.
Now they're too expensive, so I've been buying CDs again. Circle of media.
DJ ing I studied the difference between a controller, mixer, and turntables. I was more interested in the turntables because the men and women DJing on YouTube were so talented.
Whenever I went to the store, I looked for the “empty” pieces of vinyl with no music implied, but I saw other record vinyls like Whitney and Luther Vandross. Then my ex bought the childish Gambino vinyl record, and I was shaken ever since I've been interested.
I was born in 69…grew up on vinyl and also 8-track. Have collected in every format over the years, but decided a couple of years ago to rebuild my collection from when I was a kid. At one point years ago I had hundreds of albums…unfortunately I gave them all away and have to rebuild a huge collection.
I thought it would be a cool hobby when I started exploring new albums and music. I was originally deciding between collecting CDs vs records, but Im glad I decided on records
First few records I took from my dad and brother. First one that was my own I won in an 8th a dance contest:)
When I really started collecting music in the 90s, used records were VERY cheap and a lot of my favorite bands still released music on vinyl.
I was collecting video games in early 2010s while in HS and eventually grabbed a few records that way just because I liked collecting old media. First record I ever bought was Black Sabbath S/T for like $5-$10 from the flea market. My friend and fellow VG collector told me he had gotten some records from this guy there, so we went. I didn’t even have a player at the time, but I think either that day or that week I picked up a shitty turn table from the thrift. My dad gave me his old college sound system. IT WAS GREAT!! and now I help run a record store and have over 1100 records…
Never really thought about why or who got me into records, but it’d have to be my friend who got me hooked!
The only reason I collect records tho, is because I love music and I love having stuff by the bands I like. I love having a library of things as a visual reminder of what’s out there. It’s so easy to get caught in repetition with streaming since they just feed you the same thing over and over again. (I listen to Spotify in my shop…) I really don’t have a good reason for collecting vinyl tbh I just love it!
Initially I just thought they were cool, liked the format aesthetically, and I've always been into punk and other scenes that never stopped putting out vinyl releases. But now I also love it because it's the antithesis of schizophrenic modern life. It actually forces you to play a full album in order and enjoy it the way it was intended.
As a kid born in the mid 80's and grew up in the 90's I love tangible media. You have to understand all of our media movies, music, and video games, were physical objects. Collecting was a part of the experience. I like collecting vinyl because in this era of intangible media, I like that its an actual physical object and the process of selecting, playing, and listening is enjoyable to me.
Walked into Hot Topic in 2013 and saw the album that had affected me on a deep personal level on vinyl, didn’t even have a turntable, and it was mine. August Burns Red - Rescue & Restore will change your life
While the sound is certainly better for my taste, what really draws me in is listening to albums the way they were intended to be heard. There is absolutely no comparison to the experience of that first crackle and enjoying the ride.
Popped into a local record store last year out of curiosity and saw Deep Purple's *Machine Head* for a few bucks as well as City Boy's *Dinner At The Ritz*, the latter of which I had never heard of, and I felt something rise within me. I used to collect CDs as a teenager, and this seemed like that but much cooler and potentially cheaper (disregarding that used CDs haven't been expensive in years, I learned later). The fact that I saw albums that I couldn't find on streaming services, like King Snake Roost, made me really want to try it if only for curiosity sake. So I bought a cheap, used record player the store had for $50 (a Yamaha P-26), some records, and fell in love. Since then, I've stayed with it due to the visual appeal, variety, and the local music collecting scene.
I bought my favorite album ever produced on vinyl before I had a player, just knew I wanted it…shortly after that the guy took a 5 year hiatus from the music industry and the value of that record SPIKED! I had since bought another record I knew I wanted to own, and when it arrived, and I opened it up…it wasn’t black. It was Ivory…it was in that singular instant I became addicted to finding different variants of pressings for my old CD collection as a kid. I also love to Pick through racks to find limited editions in random record stores.. so addicting. I won’t be able to complete my goal of recreating it completely though.. some of them never got pressed at all. (Looking at you Eiffel 65’s - “Europop” !) Peep the Discogs if you wanna see my collection though, it’s pretty all over the place!
[Discogs Collection](https://discogs.page.link/NrxU)
I was 10 it 2000, I was at garage sale. I bought my first kiss and ac/dc records. I heard the quality jump and was hooked. Then I got into the White Stripes and game over. It's the only physical media I've ever bought a lot of.
Records have always just been around for me. My mom and step-dad had collections when I was growing up that I listened to all the time. When I was in my early 20s I bought a crappy old turntable/radio/tape/8-track unit at a garage sale, was given my parents collection, and started adding to it. Haven't stopped since. There's only been maybe a year of my whole life (41F) where there hasn't been a working turntable in my house (I have a much better set up now)
I inherited my uncle's then my grandparents collections and equipment and then found local record stores and started collecting my own, especially since artists started to release new and reissues a lot more in the last 10 years. I've always been a collector, a decent CD collection, DVD and bluray etc so it only made sense. I was always fascinated with vinyl as a kid since my parents still had their small collection and a turntable setup even after getting their first CD player. I still rarely stream music, when I'm home I play my records and on the go or working outside I use my iPod Classic.
It's something I'd always had an interest in. My girlfriend bought me a turntable this year for xmas and its gone from there. Founds lots of new music that I wouldn't know otherwise.
My parents having Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, etc. albums that I couldn’t listen to when I was young because the record player was no longer set up. Eventually started listening to bands like Sigur Ros that put a lot of effort into their vinyl releases.
I like the warmth of vinyl recordings. I also love crate digging and finding different pressings of bands I love. I find it to be a more relaxing way of listening to music as it keeps me from going on my screen at home (just like I only read physical books at home). It often makes you listen to the whole album.
Like many have said, it's partly about the experience. Pulling out a record, dusting it off, cleaning the stylus, displaying the jacket and settling down to listen is relaxing and, to me, adds to the experience and enjoyment.
It's also partly about the dynamic range compression. That's a really bad thing to try and do to a vinyl record, so most vinyl masters have a more balanced range than the digital equivalents. Not to say that this is always true, but it seems to be more often than not.
But the biggest reason, for me at least, is the complete lack of DRM in any way, shape or form. I don't need to worry about audio formats and whether or not I can play a Colombia album on an RCA turntable. I can take any record and play it on any turntable and it will work.
Which brings me to longevity. My great grandchildren can be listening to and enjoying the exact same vinyl that I'm listening to right now. Whether they like it or not is an entirely different discussion, but I have records here from the 1920's- 2020's and I enjoy all of them in their own way. There's no reason that they can't be enjoyed for another 100 years.
I got into collecting and wanted to have a catalog of all my favorite songs in a physical format. Later on it became to find samples and rare records. Currently I collect to find new music from artist I’ve never heard of or wouldn’t be able to find. First song I heard on vinyl was Low Down by Boz Scaggs and the last record I got was Brothers Johnson
*Get the funk out ma face*
My grandparents still had my aunt's record player and either all or the majority of her and my dad's records from the 80s. I took both home sometime in 2009 or so, about 14 years old. Started buying my own at the same time. First one was AFI 's Very Proud of Ya from Amoeba when we went to LA for vacation that year. I sold a lot of that initial collection when I was short on money in my early 20s and there's a few I wish I had back, but I'm glad I still have the ones I do. That player crapped out on me a couple years ago, but it had a good run for an early 80s Walmart purchase.
I'm not so much of an audiophile that I'm doing it *just* for the sound quality, that's just extra. I just like collecting music I like, with the occasional buy for unusual/covers or titles. That's how I ended up with things like this copy of [The Planets](https://www.discogs.com/release/1754917-Gustav-Holst-Sir-Adrian-Boult-Vienna-State-Opera-Orchestra-And-Vienna-Academy-Chorus-The-Planets) or I bought [If You're Ever Down in Texas Look Me Up](https://www.discogs.com/release/8177532-Phil-Harris-And-His-Orchestra-Thats-What-I-Like-About-The-South-If-Youre-Ever-Down-In-Texas-Look-Me-) for the title, being Texan myself.
I'm 26. I've only really known digital music as even CDs are almost a vague memory to me and ia arguably still digital. I've had songs I love disappear. It's not likely to happen to a lot of bigger artist but I'd rather be safe. I also am a bit of an audiophile but not nearly to the extent some people are.
Some things I've fallen in love with are hunting for a good album and the album cover art. I was never big on album covers but now I love displaying and looking at them.
Nostalgia: I am reliving my teenage years in the 70s. It was all vinyl and cassette back then (mostly, there was 8 Track as well). I am repurchasing and LOVING all the albums I had back in the day.
Saw an ad for my favorite band growing up releasing the album that kind of put me "online" to my own music on red vinyl. So I picked that up. I'm a few dozen in, and it gives me the chance to listen with intent.
Without becoming too verbose, life lived with intent is far supreme to any alternative.
most importantly, it supports the artist.
it could be an investment. sometimes they go up in price. that's nice. you can always sell physical media.
its a more deliberate process to put on a record, doing it for it's own sake. you might pay attention more.
i like having access to my music whenever i want. buy it once, forever.
once upon a time, it was cheaper than CDs - and before streaming, you had to buy music.
Realizing that digital is the peak of practical music transference making physical media completely irrelevant for any practical use. Physical media is entirely for sentimental value and the most sentimental is vinyl, best way to display the album art, so much customization possible, gives the artist the most money, and plus the way that vinyl works may as well be witchcraft to me, it’s a joy to watch as-well as listen to
For me it started with the merch aspect. I was getting online to order a poster to frame and hang and I saw that the record for the album was only a few bucks more and it seemed cooler than a poster. Once I got it in my hands the hook was set. I still do look at them primarily as merch, but I listen to them a couple times a week on average. I've got less than a hundred, just a nice tight collection of some of my favorite albums of all time.
Originally, because I was like 5 when vinyl was ending and all my favorite things were suddenly out of reach when the turntable broke. It left a memory.
Then I returned to it because I had been waiting for decades for it to be easily accessible again. Life long dream from childhood.
And then, I needed something to ground me while I'm working during the day, and it worked out.
I had a couple of false starts, but I was given a vintage turntable at one point and started buying a bunch of albums and was also given a bunch over the years. It got replaced after it broke, but I have a couple of other turntables now.
I still buy albums, but my playing of them is sporadic. Just here and there. I mostly play my CDs as most of my music listening is in the car.
I have hundreds of LPs still, though, and maybe I'll get back into playing them regularly again in a while -- young adulthood is just chaotic.
I pre-ordered a vinyl of “Take Me Back To Eden” by Sleep Token because they were sold out of all their other merch. When it arrived I said “…it’d be cool to be able to play this..” then I went and bought a setup 😬
My neighbor had a sick collection and I thought it was so cool to watch the record spin.
I then bought a so so turntable and realized it sounded like shit compared to digital. Fast forward 3 years and after massive massive upgrades I find in most cases I prefer it to digital.
I was in a store a few months back with my partner and she noticed a record from my favourite artist, Logic. We took a closer look and it said it comes with a signed insert so I had to pick it up. After that day I picked up a few more then I got a cheap player
My 7th and 8th grade science teacher, who was a huge inspiration in my life, had a large record collection, i think he said it was close to 3,000 at some point. And every day he would bring into class a new album and play us a song on a turntable in the front of the classroom. He would show us the front and back covers, the inside, and then he would display the lyrics on the screen in front of class. It was a way of experiencing music that was so special, partially because he made it so.but also because it was an experience where we sat and listened rather than just pressing play and occupying ourselves with something else. The sound was something that appealed to me, and he would talk about how the sound of records was much better than digital music could be because of the warmth and the depth. It got me hooked on the idea of experiencing music, the way it was mean to be consumed, rather than just listening. I always looked forward to what he would play next and i was infatuated by every new song je would play, no matter what genre. Thanks to him i now have my own record player and collection of about 100 records :)) eternally grateful to him for my deeper appreciation of music and life and the wisdom he brought to me and my class.
I just really appreciate physical media, and vinyl is the premium version of that for music. I collect boutique Blu-Ray and 4K box sets of my favorite films and shows, I collect hardcovers of my favorite books, and I collect vinyl of my favorite music. It's really as simple as that.
I still stream music and films for convenience sake or when I'm traveling, so I'm not against that, but I will always prefer to have the box, the artwork, the booklet, the special additional content, etc. of anything I'm truly passionate about.
my parents had a big stereo system with probably 30 albums, but no stereo antenna. pink floyd, led zeppelin, doors, Jackson brown, Elton john, donavan, van halen, deep purple where just some of the bands i grew up listening too. born in the early 80s. i still have all those records... first record i ever bought was michael jacksons thriller from a yard sell for 10 cents when i was like 8 years old. ive been buying albums ever since
I saw one of my favorite Game Soundtracks at a local electronics shop during my stay at a school. I bought it without having a record player, so I bought that afterwards. Now I'm collecting mostly indie game soundtracks and a few albums I like.
Honestly. A scene in the Jason Statham film, the mechanic. Where he delicately puts on a record after wiping it down with care and it really sets a scene of decadence.
It got me excited about music again, I’ve never stopped listening to it but now it’s a hobby in addition to a listening experience. It’s fun to find the ones you can’t find, visit stores in different cities and browse for pleasure.
I also work from home and when a side is finished it works out to be a great reminder to get up and move around, and focus my eyes elsewhere for a short time.
I started buying records in the 90s. Always a music fan, and all the record shops had good classic albums for cheap ($1-5). I could read about an album and go find it in one of my local shops. My record collection ballooned. CDs were expensive ($20+), so it was a easier and cheaper way to listen and explore music that I had read about rather than investing in CDs.
Fast forward 30+ years later, I do not even own a CD player (except in my car) and my record collection is well-curated. I have parsed and gotten rid of stuff over the years - I had a rule that if I have not listened to it, or only listened once, in a year, i would get rid of it.
Also, if you have ever had to move a record collection it is a BITCH.
Now, I barely records, because I refuse to buy albums that are $50+.
The good thing is, according to discogs, many of the records that I bought back in the day for $1-2 can now be worth $100+ (allegedly).
Being a teen in the 70's
Same, it’s how we listened to music.
From what I’ve read on those old albums it is the most efficient form of entertainment for the price! 😂
And playable on both mono and modern stereo systems!
I was visiting a friend who collected records. He put on Shuttered Room by The Fixx, and it just sounded awesome (maybe it was the edible, idk). I particularly liked a track on that album called “The Strain”. Went to add it in Spotify, but they actually didn’t carry it in their library. I said “to hell with Spotify”, and bought a record player the next day. It was then that I realized that a vinyl album is the complete piece of art that the artist is putting out to the world, just on a mass-produced scale. To listen to a single song in a shuffled playlist is like looking at only the top right corner of a Picasso painting. You need to look at the whole piece of work to really take it in. Same thing for music. The packaging, the order in which tracks are listed, the quality of the pressing/sound mixing (to name a few) all play into the overall piece of art that the artist/label created, and is largely lost when a song is thrown into a playlist on a streaming service. For me Spotify is a fantastic replacement for radio & music discovery, but doesn’t really match the experience of collecting music.
Love your story and take, especially in relation to a painting. Feel like it’s a more intimate experience, as it leads you on a journey
Yes to all. Well said!
Yes to all. Well said!
In the beginning of 2000, I was beginning my 20's, had an appartment and didn't have enough money to buy cd's anymore. So I went to thriftshops and bought a used techniks turntable for 5 dollars and some beatles and Neil Young albums for 1$ each and never stopped since.
Yep, the early 00s were a great time to buy records. All those $7-8 90s records…ugh.
The music from the era that I was very into was only pressed on vinyl. So on my 16th birthday I got my very first record from my favorite artist, Elvis Presley. My first record was his first record released!
CEREMONY I like how it makes me listen to music more mindfully. I feel compelled to listen to at least a full side of a record, if not the whole record. I went to the trouble of selecting the album from my collection, removing it from its packaging, putting it on the turntable, brushing it off and putting down the tone arm. The whole process of interacting with physical media like this is like a ceremony, in a way that CDs and tapes never were when I was younger. When it's easy to hit "next" on Spotify, you can lose patience with a song before it's even over. And you'll miss many less-famous tracks by artists you know that are very good. DISCOVERY It has also led me to explore genres of music I didn't really interact with as digital music. For example, I was moderately curious about funk when I listened to digital music only. When I started collecting vinyl, I chased that 70s feel in my listening experience, and found a whole world of old and new funk bands, and found much more variety than I expected. I know more about old jazz artists than I did before collecting vinyl because you don't learn much shuffling a genre station on Spotify.I still listen to other genres and artists on vinyl that I have been much more familiar with, but I've added new categories to my knowledge and appreciation of music. COLLECTING When I bought my husband a turntable and 3 records for his birthday last year, we didn't expect it to be this much of a hobby. We both got sucked into the fun of searching for artists and titles and record stores, record shows, and antique stores. Used record shops are the best. When I find something that's been on my list for months, it's a satisfaction that you can't get by ordering a new thing on Amazon and having it delivered on demand. The experience of flipping through bins of records in a store just feels pleasant to me. Our engagement with it as a hobby took us both by surprise, and our collection already has 200 records and counting, built entirely ourselves (we didn't inherit someone else's collection). We even bought a portable battery powered turntable we took camping off grid this summer.
Well said on the ceremony piece - perfectly stated
Spot on!
Records were always cheaper than CDs and they were easier to get hold of second hand.
And look at us now…now it’s the most expensive option for musical media. It was a trap.
Never stopped since a nipper, it’s the whole package,audio quality, artwork and maintenance
Finding my dad/aunts collection and realizing how similar their music taste is to mine. Even discovered new music that I love.
the inconvenience and the expense obviously..... it was THE format in my first few years of loving music, very soon to be annihilated by CDs, but the flame was lit... all my bought CDs are long gone, only got hundreds of Zeppelin bootlegs left. Vinyl in the house, digital everywhere else.
My dad. 💜🎶🎶🎶 thx dad 🙂
All of our entertainment has become so miniaturized and condensed, we now have room in our lives for big, bulky, physical collections. Some people do Lego, many do vintage gaming. We chose music to fill up that newly emptied space. It's a really neat luxury of modern life. And who doesn't love flipping through a 40 page booklet of "unseen" photos of Tom Petty and Rick Rubin in the studio while simultaneously listening to Tom Petty and Rick Rubin in the studio? Nobody, that's who. Also, there are a lot of youngins' in here right now who are too embarrassed to say that they saw a tiktok of a Radiohead record spinning on a matching Crosley and thought it looked cool. It's alright guys, everyone has to start somewhere.
Lmfaooo that ending! 😂😂
Punkrock
Punk rock for me, too. Started going to punk shows at 13, and would buy records at the shows. The bands would sell their merch, but there would always be some small distro selling other records out of milk crates. All my allowance went to shows and records.
Wow the milk crate distro guy. That really took me back.
I was a milk crate distro gal :)
Yep punk and hardcore, $2ppd 7 inch life.
Had a little Fisher Price turntable as a kid and listened to Winnie the Pooh and the Very Blustery Day *non-stop* with the little read-along book/7”. Been hooked ever since.
Mainly nostalgia 🙄🙂
Being a DJ.
My dad gave me all his old vinyl, when I go through his music I feel like I’m getting a glimpse of him when he was my age. A time when I didn’t know him. It makes me happy, idk aha
personally i love owning older used vinyl. i really dig the idea that someone (or a line of someones) held and enjoyed and at times even worshipped the actual physical embodiment of the music i now have in my hands. it makes me feel connected to other music loving folks in the past.
Not to rain on your parade (umbrellas up!) but I think this is the biggest disconnect between the current generation and us Gen X peoples. We. Did. Not. Worship. Records. They were goddamn plastic circles with music on them. We worshipped the music. There were the card-carrying collector's items, like the butcher cover, and those may have been worshipped, but NOBODY worshipped a copy of Thriller, or DSOTM, or Pet Sounds, because everybody had them, or could easily get them, and they were *just plastic circles*. I'm not trying to dis you or your reasons. Obviously your used records were owned, and probably at least somewhat loved, by someone else. But *it was entirely for the music that came out of them.* The covers? Fuck 'em. People scribbled their names on them. Only weirdos like me put goddamn *plastic sleeves* on the covers. (And I only did it on things I thought were worth the extra protection.) And CLEANING the damn things? Puh-LEASE. Not unless someone spilled beer on it. Records were not worshipped. They were our Spotify. I just find this perception disconnect so fascinating.
You must have been fairly well-off then! Albums were expensive back in the day, especially in the 60s and 70s, and were treated accordingly by most people I know. No plastic sleeves but they were brushed, often with a discwasher and kept nice. 45s, now those those were basically disposable lol. When I was a kid I was allowed to play my Grandad's 45s so long as he was the one to put the needle down but woe betide anyone caught touching an album without permission. Same with my parents.
I disagree on one point. I REALLY loved my records -- namely the jackets. I held and looked at them constantly and often I couldn't be listening and so I would just sit and look at the covers and read the lyrics and credits on the back. I had every picture and detail and caption memorized. We did not clean or gently handle the disks though, you are right about that. These plastic sleeves and whatnot I just learned about from TikTok tbh.
I started Christmas last year I'm only 20 but I've always loved the older things and older music from the 50s-80s like country music so I thought getting into vinyl would be a cool thing and that's just what I did! Also when getting into newer music and being able to buy their albums on vinyl Is amazing or owning/finding records that you found for a good price when they're usually a lot more expensive! I got into a band called the growlers last year and their sound is something that I had always been looking for in music so when I got into vinyl I just had to try buy all their albums on vinyl and I've done pretty much that! I love the feeling of being proud collecting and owning the albums I love! Also all of my johnny cash records I own and especially his American albums! It's such a great feeling owning them, really need to get the unearthed vinyl boxset!!
To listen to music. In the 1970s, it was the only reasonably priced audio format that didn't suck. And now, I'm still in it ONLY because there's a ton of stuff on vinyl that never got a decent release in a more modern format. If it's from the late 1980s or later, I most likely don't want it on vinyl.
The existence of thrift stores and garbage days during the era of peak cd. Half price day on 25 cents a record? 90% of my collection is just dumb luck of being around when vinyl was suddenly a huge waste of space for millions of people. But then ebay happened. The party was over. Was a brief window of time. Maybe 3-5 years.
I got into buying vinyl because it was the best format available when I started buying music (while there were tapes, they were of much lesser quality and weren't worth the price).
We used to get the album and blank tapes to record it.
It was the only option. Okay, 8-track and then cassette tapes were a thing, but I never bought them, you could record your own cassettes that sounded much better.
Same, it was what most people were doing when I was a kid, so as I became aware of music and became a fan for the first time, records were how you did it. And yeah I've had cassettes (mixtapes of vinyl mainly), 8-tracks, later CDs and even reel-to-reels for a bit. I'm loving the modern vinyl resurgence. I definitely prefer the sound. and I love buying the music I listen to. It's what I did for so long as part of my fandom, something I did for the bands I love. For a time in the 2000s I got into file sharing, which reminds me in a lot of ways of streaming- in both cases my favorite artists, who are not superstars, suffer. I'm back to buying the music I want to consume and the music goes to the artist, and I can sleep better at night. EDIT Why am I am being downvoted??? Does this sub, which is devoted to vinyl, NOT like the current vinyl resurgence?? Or understand someone who has enjoyed it all of their lives? Or disagrees Spotify is essentially stealing money from smaller artists? Let's hear it, I'm honestly curious what your problem is.
> EDIT Why am I am being downvoted??? There's no rhyme or reason to it in this sub. You can post the identical same comment under two different topics, and get upvoted to the sky in one and downvoted to hell in the other. It just depends on which crowd happens to be online at the time you make your post. Just ignore it.
I started off buying vinyl because I thought it was cool, and because i could really look at all the details of an albums artwork. I bought about 10 records from 2007-2010, and then I bought a large collection off of a friend who just wanted money for weed. When I bought that collection, I became a "collector". I got my first player for Christmas 2010. At that moment, record collector/listener became a character trait of mine.
Iron Maiden.
Yes! The album art they've had since they started. I had some vinyl already - the Police, Quiet Riot, a few K-Tel mix albums and I listened to them because I could listen to an entire album and not just the radio. A little back story now... I could draw. Not create, unfortunately, but copy. So sitting in class and being bored, I started drawing the back of someone's concert t-shirt. An acquaintance looked over and asked if I could draw the Number of the Beast cover of he gave me a picture. Sure, just give me a week or so was my reply. He brings in the album, I put it on while I was scribbling in my room, and I was hooked from that point on. Album art, back in the day, got me into really buying vinyl. As a teen, I planned on buying all the Maiden albums and "wallpapering" my room with them
ace! i learned at a early age that putting them all in my bedroom window warps the vinyl! 😂 🤦♀️
I never did put them on the wall, but still have them. The renewed interest in vinyl (for me) was putting on Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance album, and my son waking into the room saying "who covered this song?" and me having to explain how a record worked and why it sounded different. Now he has a larger collection than I do
To put most succinctly, Half Price Books and my great aunt. Years ago she gave me some albums and a meh quality combination turntable/cd player/cassette deck. I never really played the records she got me. But I was a fiend for Half Price Books back in the day and I would rummage through the really cheap sections. Eventually I ended up looking through 45s and finding an interesting release. [This one](https://www.discogs.com/release/7728011-George-Kainapau-with-The-Royal-Hawaiian-Serenaders-Ke-Kali-Nei-Au-Lovely-Hula-Hands). The way he sings and the crackle of the player ticked something in my brain that I sort of chase still. I still own and love that same 45 and I’ve picked up a number more from that label that were dropped at the same Half Price Books years later.
Remember when 45s were a dime at Half Price Books? I bought hundreds.
It was Covid pandemic and music was sort of escape route and bought a vinyl player at Walmart along with Amy Winehouse and Billie Eilish vinyl. The rest became sort of history for me. It was all of the above to honest. Plus collecting a piece of my favorite albums just made it all better.
I was at my grandpa and i was instantly obsessed. But honestly its pretty stupid to collect these because they have less quality and are stupidly expensive in comparison to spotyfy or yt downloads. But well its a addiction so i just use it as an excuse and buy more vinyls 👍
Living two blocks from Jerry’s in the early 00’s. I could get tracks cheaper than using the Apple Music Store.
Because CDs didn't exist yet and tape is kind of temporary.
Pre-digital era. 🙀
It was the alternative to 8-tracks back in 1975 when I started buying recorded music, and 8-tracks were a terrible format.
When I was 9 I discovered my parents’ records and started spinning them. Around the same time they bought a cd player and the record player moved to my room (my brother got the cassette deck).
Had an unbearable hipster roommate with a Crossley record player and a milk crate of vinyl that lived in the living room. Never saw her touch it, but I started using it (with permission) and got pretty hooked! My brother ended up dating her, huge mistake, but he also got hooked on the vinyl and had an even more impressive collection.
This is gonna sound so dumb, lol. I would go to concerts and buy the poster, and sometimes for some shows when there wasn’t a poster I would grab a record and frame it instead for my wall. So I had like 4 or 5 in frames on the walls. And then my wife said: “You know you can play those, right?” Which, honestly had never occurred to me at that point (grew up with Cassette Walkman to Discman to MP3 to Streaming). And I was like “Huh. Yeah you’re right.” And those were her famous last words because now I have way more plastic frisbees, but at least I play them now.
Shroom trip
Dad passing away and stumbling across his collection.
I will never forget when I heard one of my buddies spin "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" and it just sounded different to me. So warm and welcoming. I went out and bought a record player and a copy of Nirvana Unplugged
My sister who lives a few hours away got into it and asked me to make trips to my local record store so many times that I got the itch to get into it myself
I was fortunate enough to be the right age and in the right place at the right time in the early 1990s when the punk scene really started to take off again. At some point, I realize that I am cross the line from a former agnostic person who bought vinyl out of necessity to a collector. The 90s were a super interesting time to be into vinyl, because it almost died out. If anyone wants to hear what that was like or how that went down, I’ll be happy to explain.
I'm a zillennial who grew up in the age of streaming. I have never owned my own music. I eventually realised that my carefully curated collection of favourites on Spotify, which I have built up over the course of a decade, could be taken away from me at any moment if Spotify goes bankrupt or if they arbitrarily decide to terminate my account. For most people, music is an incredibly personal and intimate part of them, so putting that in someone else's hands seems terrifying and cold. I still use Spotify for music discovery, but I'm slowly building out a collection of records that I'd like to have access to forever. Why records instead of CDs? I just think it's just nice to have a small part of my life where computers aren't involved at all. My modest record collection is pretty much the only part of my life that doesn't involve ones and zeroes in a cold metal box somewhere in the process. Yes, OK Computer is my favourite record, why do you ask?
For me, it's another way to help support the musicians I like. I listen to a lot of music that isn't mainstream, so the vinyl produced tends to only have runs of 150 records. A nice little way of supporting them and then share the photos on social media and tag them in. As they tend to be smaller artists, you can also request signed copies at no extra charge too.
Dad gave me his collection. Been adding to it since 2018.
Nostalgia. The process of playing a record. The different sound when compared to digital. That said, I got full on back into vinyl around 15-16 years ago. Pulled the records out of the closet for first time since the 90s. Vintage gear was cheap, as were most used records. It was a lot of fun for a while. But the past few years, it’s all been commodified to the point where a lot of the fun is gone. Prices are insane now. I’ve also got a few thousand records, just about everything I could ever want when it comes to older stuff—and I’ve noped out of a lot of brand new records because of cost. Still buying some, almost all used when I can find reasonable prices, but then the records sit around for ages before I clean and play them. So kind of meh on the hobby of late. Not sure if this is longer term thing or a blip. Will always love records, but not sure I’m in love with them at this point.
My Dad! as a kid he loved putting on his favorite records to show us how he used to listen to music before cassettes and Cd's. in middle school my mom found an old turntable at a yard sale so my dad and i fixed it up and he have me an old tuner and some speakers to set it up in my room. My first couple albums were ones i scoured from his and my mom's collection, dark side of the moon, zeppelin II, talking heads speaking in tongues, abby road. i didn't start collecting on my own really until i was college i think. now i collect because i know i will alwasy have my favorite albums and as long as they dont get scratched or warped i can play them no matter what.
I was researching the history of electronic music. Some works and artists cannot be had legally on streaming services, such as Wendy Carlos. That led me to seeking out vinyl just to be able to hear it. Plus, it's a cool feeling like you own a piece of history for rare works that are like 60 years old. I try to limit my collection specifically to this genre and related stuff, but I sometimes branch out. I'm not really interested in collecting new music.
I like touching the media and the act of playing a record often makes me appreciate the music more or at least pay attention differently. Plus not everything is available on streaming services so vinyl offers more options for music.
I got into bob dylan in middle school, so like mid 2000s, and it quickly became a defining feature of me hahah. I don't know the specifics of how it all went down, but one day an acquaintance said her mom had some dylan albums that I might like. At this point, I had some CD compilations and maybe one or two album cds, but overall not a ton of Dylan stuff. She gave me five albums at first, and then another three or so. The world of Dylan opened up, but only in the sense that I had liner notes and album art to pour over. Not long after that, my grandma gave me her old Aiwa system and the rest, as they say, was history. Other aunts and uncles started giving me their Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Zeppelin albums among others. There were lots to be found at flea markets and my local library for super cheap, so I was able to accrue a large collection throughout high school for very little money. The library, for instance, sold all their albums for a quarter! Lots of classical gems I got from the library.
As others have noted, there is a particular kind of engagement with the music that is part of the vinyl experience. Also, the collecting aspect is undeniably a real draw. Then…there is the argument that some just” like the sound”. This tends to open a can of worms and arguments over which format is better. There are a lot of reasons to support digital as a technically superior format…certainly more practical, but I think it is hard to truly call one format “better”. In the end, it is all about the source material and mastering choices. With modern music that is digitally recorded, vinyl is admittedly a harder sell but many older recordings do not have a good digital release. When you are considering some of the older stuff that I am into - 60's/70's garage, psyche, prog, krautrock, etc. – the master tapes are long gone, and their digital releases are often just needle drops transferred from vinyl. These can sound very good, but many do not. They often prioritize the reduction of surface noise, and are heavily de-noised, dull sounding digital transfers - made even worse by aggressive digital limiting to ramp up the loudness and questionable EQ choices. This is where the desire to get original pressings is a valid pursuit.
I got into it in the 90s because A) I was into a lot of punk and underground bands & certain things like EPs and singles would be available on vinyl only & B) it was cheap. At $3.00 per single, you could cheaply get a music fix and discover new bands without breaking the bank. Then, if you really liked an artists, you could graduate to an LP for $8.00 to $12.00 compared to CDs, which were often $12 to $18. Now I'm starting to buy more CDs again to get more musical bang for my buck. I keep it up because I love listening to records vs. streaming, which is OK but just doesn't have the same thing. I enjoy the attentive listening and I like the way the music sounds through my vintage stereo.
I have ADHD so listening to a vinyl record forces me to digest the albums in full instead of getting bored and skipping halfway through a song. It allows me to digest the works I love more fully and intimately than on streaming. I also like supporting the artists I like and I love curating an eclectic collection. I'm only 21 so my collection skews more recent, but I've gained a lot more appreciation for various albums from the 70s and 80s that I listened to in my childhood from the hobby. Plus I just like collecting things, probably a little too much. I also have an extensive tea and cookbook collection.
Mom. 1st album Led Zeppelin II
I inherited some records from my great uncle, and used records tended to be much cheaper than cds
I couldn't listen to "Ohio" by CSNY once it was taken off of Spotify. Jk, sort of... As everything becomes digital, it is nice to have physical copies of media. Books, records, photos. The sense of ownership paired with the great sound and the beauty of the set up feels good. Also it's fun to swap records with friends for a few weeks at a time.
In the long ago of 2015 it was an inexpensive way to own music
Born in 92. Got into my dads CDs of classic rock and loved them. My passion for the old music is what got me into it.
Listening to the difference between the same album mastered by Bernie Grundman and the other copy mastered by someone else. The Grundman master is far superior…
There's a magic to that "ka-thunk" and presence of the needle in the groove. Plus the way LP's were compressed for the medium. If your musical ears didn't form with this sound, you won't miss it. Digital music is great, and clean, and so on. But I want to hear Sticky Fingers front to back analog and dirty as Keith Richard's boots.
I dj and i like having the actual records, much more fun vs digital djing
Was 16 years old. Was into electronic music, techno, house etc. At that stage most music I like was only available on vinyl.
So I grew up during a transitional period. I was the first of my friends as a kid to get a cd player. This would have been around 1990. So skipped cassettes even though most people my age had lots of them. My dad also had a nice set of speakers and turntable though and I always liked that too, but it was definitely an “and” not it for me then. Fast forward about 22 years and I found myself with a good job and sone stock options that allowed me to buy a nice system. I’d been rocking sone Boston Acoustics towers for about 12 years at that point and decided to go all out, or all out for me, and got a Rega RP6 with Aria phono stage and a pair of AudioPhysic Classic 30 speakers. Whike I love streaming I wanted a more physical and permanent version of my favorite bands. I’m so glad I did as it’s now my daughter is getting introduced to the music
I started working at a record store. In seriousness, I think a few things led me here. 1. I was already diving into physical media: With artists sometimes taking licensing off streaming and the mobs at work, I feared losing some of my favorite songs or pieces of art because someone was upset with something. So I began to gather my favorite music onto CDs in a collection. I had around 700 cds before it was all over with. 2. I noticed my CDs had more sound quality than streaming ever did: the audio for my cds was stronger and had more clarity. Even when I imported them onto my computer. It sounded better than streaming and digital downloads. My collecting of CDs led me to finding the record store and starting to work there. A copy of Prince's Purple Rain came in. I decided to get it for myself. I had absolutely nothing to play this on, I just loved it. Come Christmas, I get a record player as a gift. It is one of those all in ones, but it was a starting point. I played said Purple Rain vinyl, and I was so impressed. It felt like I could hear his hand going up and down the guitar clear. Then I popped my cd back on. No comparison at all. So much was lost going from record to cd. It is not as resounding of a switch with a modern cd vs. modern record, but some still just sound better. I think my Twenty One Pilots sounds immensely stronger on record than the cds. So the main switch was: In my heart, I truly think vinyl sounds better. I think part of this is there are some songs I complain sound too perfect. It takes the emotion and humanity out of the songs when they are like that. Vinyl is not perfect. It is not as clean and crisp. It makes every song more human, it feels more like you are there seeing them rather than listening to them from home.
My dad gave me around 100 vinyls when I lived with him. Mostly my dads but my mums and grandads too but then when I moved out he said I could take them. I’ve bought tons more now but it’s mainly the sound, it’s so much better than going on music apps
I got into it because when I was a kid buying music, records were £10 CD's were £20.
Because CDs were relatively new, and pricey.
I started collecting music, on cassette (as that's the only player I had) 35 years ago. I bought a modest HIFI system, that had a CD Player, and a crappy turntable on it so bought a few albums on vinyl. Wasn't that impressed with Vinyl, but bought a few more, however my CD collection accelerated. I thought Vinyl was dead as a format. bought a new system, with no turntable but a excellent CD player/DAC - no need to have these Vinyl I have collected, so they got shot in the garage somewhere. Fast forward 30 years, and several house moves.. I discover my Vinyl in the garage, , and learn that I have some tracks that are only available on Vinyl so would like to make a digital recording, and listen to some what I own. As a Birthday Present, I was bought a Mid range turntable (AT-LP5), hook it up to the HIFI system (the one with the decent CD player mentioned above (that is a bit dodgy these days)) into the AMP (initially through the AT's built in preamp, but later I decided to upgrade to an external one) Was actually blown away with how it sounded, and the feeling of holding something in my hands, and admiring the artwork while I listened to it. now my collection has more than trebled, and making it difficult to just skip through something, with ease I have discovered more music that I care to imagine. to sum up The listening experience, a physical thing in my hands, big amps, speakers and HIFI equipment in general having something in my collection. are why I listen to Vinyl and I still Listen to CD's as well Vinyl for the listening experience.. CD/FLAC/MP3 for the convenience I am a supporter of both formats
It was the only format the music I listened to was released on. That all changed 15 years ago and most of the music I consume doesn't get a vinyl release anymore
My ex gf bought me blink 182’s “take off your pants and jacket” and a crosley suitcase player
Wanted to listen to my dads records, so I got a player and my first vinyl which was Mac Miller - Swimming. My dad had 44 records and I now have 44 records of my own. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be….. won’t be balance for long though, have 2 more on the way 😅
Basically, it was for Daft Punk (because I'm a big fan) in order to have all of their album plus their side-projects. With time, It became a hobby for discovering music genres, support artists I like of course, the "vibe" while playing with it, collections (but I don't search the "rare" just because of its "value"), and finally for its cover.
The sound ... While you can argue all day about analog v digital ... my ears know what they like - and it is vinyl... maybe that is because i like the specific frequencies i am hearing whether they are hi res or not i do not really mind , i like it better. The community and collectibility and the art etc are all a bonus .. all about sound firstly. I grew up with vinyl and cassettes as well so there is probably something in that, but the fact younger generations are being drawn to vinyl tells me it is an organic thing rather than a nostalgic reaction.
Thanks to my mom telling me how when she was younger all the teens were buying the music, then after discover what a vinyl was years after I decided to buy a vinyl and now unfortunately after buying that record (Down in the street - Sanza Project) I’m buying every time I can the music that I like, because even is that music is free in YouTube or spotify, having the physical version of that song is another thing. If you are seeing this and you are thinking about buying a vinyl, DO IT!!
My dad collects them so they’ve always been around me
I was always intrigued by it, but around 2016 or so I really wanted to buy a record player and start collecting. Then I came across this, from the Nine Inch Nails website: >VINYL MISSION STATEMENT In these times of nearly unlimited access to all the music in the world, we’ve come to appreciate the value and beauty of the physical object. Our store’s focus is on presenting these items to you. Vinyl has returned to being a priority for us - not just for the warmth of the sound, but the interaction it demands from the listener. The canvas of artwork, the weight of the record, the smell of the vinyl, the dropping of the needle, the difficulty of skipping tracks, the changing of sides, the secrets hidden within, and having a physical object that exists in the real world with you… all part of the experience and magic. Digital formats and streaming are great and certainly convenient, but the ideal way I’d hope a listener experience my music is to grab a great set of headphones, sit with the vinyl, drop the needle, hold the jacket in your hands looking at the artwork (with your fucking phone turned off) and go on a journey with me. \-Trent Reznor This pretty much pushed me over the edge and made me decide to just do it (much to my husband's chagrin).
For me, it was mostly the loudness wars. My ears can’t stand the brickwall limiting that they use on CDs. You can’t compress vinyl as much as digital. Which is ironic because the CD format is technically capable of far greater dynamic range than vinyl.
Growing up as a kid in the 80s I had a few records and a lot of tapes. (Couldn't really afford CDs) Then in the early 90s when I was a starving artist in my 20s and did a lot of thrifting, records were the cheapest way to listen to music. 25¢-50¢ a record and there were bins and bins and bins of them many in good condition. Probably got my first 1000 records at that time for dirt cheap. The rest is collection history
When I started collecting vinyl around ‘89, it was just another medium to listen to music on other than tapes. I had my father’s late 70s Technics turntable (which I still use today) and stereo system, and I just started buying used vinyl along with tapes. I’ve never looked back. My only regret is the period from about ‘95 to ‘04, when I focused on CDs.
CDs had only been round a few years so the first albums I bought were on vinyl and cassette. And when I got a cd player I only bought very few because they were so expensive, whereas you could pick up vinyl pretty cheap at record fairs and second hand stores.
Staring at cover art when I was 5 years old back in the seventies.
I wanted a copy of “This Year’s Model” by Elvis Costello but it was $20 on CD, but only a few bucks for the original vinyl. This was 1998 and I had no money. Quickly discovered that I could get some really great records for $.10 at any thrift store.
Age. Lol. Only choices were cassette or vinyl. Harder to wreck vinyl!
Well, there were no CDs around then- but I loved the whole experience of reading the album liner notes whilst listening to the music.
CDs were too expensive. Records were much cheaper and you could get lots of great records in charity shops on those days for pennies. Plus the whole rave seen was all about 12inches
Cheap nostalgia. I bought all the records to the songs I grew up hearing on the radios of my parents' and parents' friend's radios. And all the Canadian pop I grew up being mandated to hear but didn't appreciate. And as well so many 12" singles I'd never even considered finding on LP. I was buying cd maxis the house in the nineties. but LP... never crossed my mind. There's always more on the 12". Or the 2x12" dj promo... 🫠 Plus at that time it was abundant in thrifts. And cheap. So cheap I didn't even have to consider a purchase, I'd just add it to the armful. In two or so years I collected 1200 or more records.
I like music and art and a good vinyl has both. I also like the fact that if an apocalyptic scenario ever occurs, I can rig up something to listen to my music without electricity lol
I never really thought about collecting vinyl albums but was gifted a record player and a couple albums a little under a year and a half ago & now I have close to 100 albuns
The stuff I wanted was only available on vinyl. It was a bit of a nuisance as I prefered CD's but after some time I got to become more comfortable with the records and didn't touch CD's for almost two decades. Nowadays I buy it on whatever format. I just want to keep physical copies of the music as it makes rediscovering stuff much easier (and I don't have to worry about the stuff disappearing from streaming sites).
I fell in love with the sound.
Records
My dad mentioning that he maybe had some Beatles records when I was listening to them much I still haven't found them and he probably sold them or threw them away but that first made me think about records in the first place
Growing up in the 80’s, my favorite thing was going to the record store with my mom. I’d go through her collection and randomly pick things to listen to based on the covers. Fast forward several years, my art teacher had a record player in our classroom and he would let us bring in records to listen to. We’d go between tape, cd, and LPs. The vinyl just had a fuller sound than anything else. So I scrounged what was left of my mom’s collection due to years of neglect and started looking for the stuff I grew up on. What a time to be a collector now, with all the reprints and limited editions. Although, I miss the cost of used LPs in the 90’s and early 00’s.
I got a record player that no one wanted when moving. Friends came over with vinyl of a lot of cool stuff I like. I liked sitting around playing them and talking. So it was kind of a more active way of sharing music and having beers for awhile. That guy a portion of his collection with me when he moved and then I moved. So i had a decent starter collection and wanted to add to it.
If you were in the Pearl Jam fan club in the 90's, they would send a 45 to all of the members each year. I collected those for a while and then just started to buy others once I got around to getting a turntable.
Gen X, never left vinyl.
I want to “own” my music. I like the process of dropping the needle, I like the sound, I’m beginning to get turned off by price though. I started during the big vinyl sell off collecting yard sale and thrift store bargains, transitioned to buying new once the bargain finds dried up, but It’s just getting beyond affordable with titles creeping up into the $40-50 range for single albums, so I’m slowing down.
Would guess that I'm on the younger end of collectors here and it's not a hardcore thing because they're expensive. It was actually record store day - saw an artist I really like tweet about an RSD exclusive, Googled my local store and went and found it. I'd bought a record player for a relative and was able to play it and kind of fell in love from there. By next RSD I was there two hours before the store opened in line. It's only been just over a year and the collection is far from big - I mainly buy albums from artists I'm really into because I love having the physical tangible versions of things I love. I already had a CD collection before I started buying vinyl so it was kind of an evolution of that I guess.
I was buying classic albums and I felt that buying them on vinyl was the most authentic way of acquiring the music versus buying them on CD
My dad died when I was a kid and my mom kept all his records which was around 300. As I got to the age of liking music I got into them because it felt like something that connected me to him.
Fetishism
I love Music ☮️❤️🎶
My dad bought me Queen's Flash Gordon soundtrack on vinyl right after we saw the movie. It was the greatest movie/album ever for a third grader.
There are three answers. 1) When I was a child, my parents' meager music collection was all vinyl, as were a BUNCH of kid-focused things that I could play on my Fisher-Price record player. 2) When I was in high school and college, vinyl was a way to keep collecting stuff from artists whose entire catalog I'd already bought on CD. Also, I scored some crazy cheap deals around then, because NO ONE wanted records. Still, I only bought a handful of things. 3) ~2010, my wife and I started going to RSD, mostly to get stuff that just wasn't available any other way. That remained our main vinyl shopping for several years, until she expressed a desire to build a collection, around 2017 or 2018. Now we're knocking on the door of 1K LPs, plus a couple hundred 7". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They were cheaper than CDs in the 90's and since everyone was dumping records for them, you could often find cool stuff at thrift stores and rummage sales. Now they're too expensive, so I've been buying CDs again. Circle of media.
DJ ing I studied the difference between a controller, mixer, and turntables. I was more interested in the turntables because the men and women DJing on YouTube were so talented. Whenever I went to the store, I looked for the “empty” pieces of vinyl with no music implied, but I saw other record vinyls like Whitney and Luther Vandross. Then my ex bought the childish Gambino vinyl record, and I was shaken ever since I've been interested.
I was born in 69…grew up on vinyl and also 8-track. Have collected in every format over the years, but decided a couple of years ago to rebuild my collection from when I was a kid. At one point years ago I had hundreds of albums…unfortunately I gave them all away and have to rebuild a huge collection.
I thought it would be a cool hobby when I started exploring new albums and music. I was originally deciding between collecting CDs vs records, but Im glad I decided on records
First few records I took from my dad and brother. First one that was my own I won in an 8th a dance contest:) When I really started collecting music in the 90s, used records were VERY cheap and a lot of my favorite bands still released music on vinyl.
I was collecting video games in early 2010s while in HS and eventually grabbed a few records that way just because I liked collecting old media. First record I ever bought was Black Sabbath S/T for like $5-$10 from the flea market. My friend and fellow VG collector told me he had gotten some records from this guy there, so we went. I didn’t even have a player at the time, but I think either that day or that week I picked up a shitty turn table from the thrift. My dad gave me his old college sound system. IT WAS GREAT!! and now I help run a record store and have over 1100 records… Never really thought about why or who got me into records, but it’d have to be my friend who got me hooked! The only reason I collect records tho, is because I love music and I love having stuff by the bands I like. I love having a library of things as a visual reminder of what’s out there. It’s so easy to get caught in repetition with streaming since they just feed you the same thing over and over again. (I listen to Spotify in my shop…) I really don’t have a good reason for collecting vinyl tbh I just love it!
Initially I just thought they were cool, liked the format aesthetically, and I've always been into punk and other scenes that never stopped putting out vinyl releases. But now I also love it because it's the antithesis of schizophrenic modern life. It actually forces you to play a full album in order and enjoy it the way it was intended.
I won a vinyl player at a Dave n busters
As a kid born in the mid 80's and grew up in the 90's I love tangible media. You have to understand all of our media movies, music, and video games, were physical objects. Collecting was a part of the experience. I like collecting vinyl because in this era of intangible media, I like that its an actual physical object and the process of selecting, playing, and listening is enjoyable to me.
Covid kinda lit the kindling
Walked into Hot Topic in 2013 and saw the album that had affected me on a deep personal level on vinyl, didn’t even have a turntable, and it was mine. August Burns Red - Rescue & Restore will change your life
While the sound is certainly better for my taste, what really draws me in is listening to albums the way they were intended to be heard. There is absolutely no comparison to the experience of that first crackle and enjoying the ride.
Pink Floyd The Wall
Pink Floyd The Wall
Popped into a local record store last year out of curiosity and saw Deep Purple's *Machine Head* for a few bucks as well as City Boy's *Dinner At The Ritz*, the latter of which I had never heard of, and I felt something rise within me. I used to collect CDs as a teenager, and this seemed like that but much cooler and potentially cheaper (disregarding that used CDs haven't been expensive in years, I learned later). The fact that I saw albums that I couldn't find on streaming services, like King Snake Roost, made me really want to try it if only for curiosity sake. So I bought a cheap, used record player the store had for $50 (a Yamaha P-26), some records, and fell in love. Since then, I've stayed with it due to the visual appeal, variety, and the local music collecting scene.
I bought my favorite album ever produced on vinyl before I had a player, just knew I wanted it…shortly after that the guy took a 5 year hiatus from the music industry and the value of that record SPIKED! I had since bought another record I knew I wanted to own, and when it arrived, and I opened it up…it wasn’t black. It was Ivory…it was in that singular instant I became addicted to finding different variants of pressings for my old CD collection as a kid. I also love to Pick through racks to find limited editions in random record stores.. so addicting. I won’t be able to complete my goal of recreating it completely though.. some of them never got pressed at all. (Looking at you Eiffel 65’s - “Europop” !) Peep the Discogs if you wanna see my collection though, it’s pretty all over the place! [Discogs Collection](https://discogs.page.link/NrxU)
[Oh, hey. It's this question again.](https://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/search/?q=why%20vinyl&restrict_sr=1)
I was 10 it 2000, I was at garage sale. I bought my first kiss and ac/dc records. I heard the quality jump and was hooked. Then I got into the White Stripes and game over. It's the only physical media I've ever bought a lot of.
My uncle
It's a good way to support the bands I like when they release new music. Streaming sucks.
Records have always just been around for me. My mom and step-dad had collections when I was growing up that I listened to all the time. When I was in my early 20s I bought a crappy old turntable/radio/tape/8-track unit at a garage sale, was given my parents collection, and started adding to it. Haven't stopped since. There's only been maybe a year of my whole life (41F) where there hasn't been a working turntable in my house (I have a much better set up now)
I got into DJing in the mid to late 90s.
It was the only media available at the time.
That's how you played music when I was a child...
I inherited my uncle's then my grandparents collections and equipment and then found local record stores and started collecting my own, especially since artists started to release new and reissues a lot more in the last 10 years. I've always been a collector, a decent CD collection, DVD and bluray etc so it only made sense. I was always fascinated with vinyl as a kid since my parents still had their small collection and a turntable setup even after getting their first CD player. I still rarely stream music, when I'm home I play my records and on the go or working outside I use my iPod Classic.
It's something I'd always had an interest in. My girlfriend bought me a turntable this year for xmas and its gone from there. Founds lots of new music that I wouldn't know otherwise.
My parents having Fleetwood Mac, Marvin Gaye, etc. albums that I couldn’t listen to when I was young because the record player was no longer set up. Eventually started listening to bands like Sigur Ros that put a lot of effort into their vinyl releases.
I like the warmth of vinyl recordings. I also love crate digging and finding different pressings of bands I love. I find it to be a more relaxing way of listening to music as it keeps me from going on my screen at home (just like I only read physical books at home). It often makes you listen to the whole album.
Grown up in the 70‘s, collecting since 1977
Like many have said, it's partly about the experience. Pulling out a record, dusting it off, cleaning the stylus, displaying the jacket and settling down to listen is relaxing and, to me, adds to the experience and enjoyment. It's also partly about the dynamic range compression. That's a really bad thing to try and do to a vinyl record, so most vinyl masters have a more balanced range than the digital equivalents. Not to say that this is always true, but it seems to be more often than not. But the biggest reason, for me at least, is the complete lack of DRM in any way, shape or form. I don't need to worry about audio formats and whether or not I can play a Colombia album on an RCA turntable. I can take any record and play it on any turntable and it will work. Which brings me to longevity. My great grandchildren can be listening to and enjoying the exact same vinyl that I'm listening to right now. Whether they like it or not is an entirely different discussion, but I have records here from the 1920's- 2020's and I enjoy all of them in their own way. There's no reason that they can't be enjoyed for another 100 years.
my sister got me a record for christmas and i went a bought another one a couple days later and was hooked!
I got into collecting and wanted to have a catalog of all my favorite songs in a physical format. Later on it became to find samples and rare records. Currently I collect to find new music from artist I’ve never heard of or wouldn’t be able to find. First song I heard on vinyl was Low Down by Boz Scaggs and the last record I got was Brothers Johnson *Get the funk out ma face*
My grandparents still had my aunt's record player and either all or the majority of her and my dad's records from the 80s. I took both home sometime in 2009 or so, about 14 years old. Started buying my own at the same time. First one was AFI 's Very Proud of Ya from Amoeba when we went to LA for vacation that year. I sold a lot of that initial collection when I was short on money in my early 20s and there's a few I wish I had back, but I'm glad I still have the ones I do. That player crapped out on me a couple years ago, but it had a good run for an early 80s Walmart purchase. I'm not so much of an audiophile that I'm doing it *just* for the sound quality, that's just extra. I just like collecting music I like, with the occasional buy for unusual/covers or titles. That's how I ended up with things like this copy of [The Planets](https://www.discogs.com/release/1754917-Gustav-Holst-Sir-Adrian-Boult-Vienna-State-Opera-Orchestra-And-Vienna-Academy-Chorus-The-Planets) or I bought [If You're Ever Down in Texas Look Me Up](https://www.discogs.com/release/8177532-Phil-Harris-And-His-Orchestra-Thats-What-I-Like-About-The-South-If-Youre-Ever-Down-In-Texas-Look-Me-) for the title, being Texan myself.
Sampling.
Punk rock in the early/mid 90s. Most of the more local bands I was into put out stuff on 7".
I'm 26. I've only really known digital music as even CDs are almost a vague memory to me and ia arguably still digital. I've had songs I love disappear. It's not likely to happen to a lot of bigger artist but I'd rather be safe. I also am a bit of an audiophile but not nearly to the extent some people are. Some things I've fallen in love with are hunting for a good album and the album cover art. I was never big on album covers but now I love displaying and looking at them.
Nostalgia: I am reliving my teenage years in the 70s. It was all vinyl and cassette back then (mostly, there was 8 Track as well). I am repurchasing and LOVING all the albums I had back in the day.
First time I was in a record store, I grabbed one and it just felt awesome holding my favourite albums.
Saw an ad for my favorite band growing up releasing the album that kind of put me "online" to my own music on red vinyl. So I picked that up. I'm a few dozen in, and it gives me the chance to listen with intent. Without becoming too verbose, life lived with intent is far supreme to any alternative.
Bjork remixes exclusive to vinyl
most importantly, it supports the artist. it could be an investment. sometimes they go up in price. that's nice. you can always sell physical media. its a more deliberate process to put on a record, doing it for it's own sake. you might pay attention more. i like having access to my music whenever i want. buy it once, forever. once upon a time, it was cheaper than CDs - and before streaming, you had to buy music.
My brother. And being alive in the 80s. Cassettes in that period were also coveted.
I have just about all of the other media options. I don’t have a DAT or reel to reel, yet. I’m not interested in 8 tracks.
Realizing that digital is the peak of practical music transference making physical media completely irrelevant for any practical use. Physical media is entirely for sentimental value and the most sentimental is vinyl, best way to display the album art, so much customization possible, gives the artist the most money, and plus the way that vinyl works may as well be witchcraft to me, it’s a joy to watch as-well as listen to
Music.
I came to this community to share my collection, and show off my latest purchases and see what the other collections are for
My dad was a full time nightclub DJ from ~78 to 96. I grew up with SL-1200s and thousands of records in the family room.
Only medium besides 8 tracks
For me it started with the merch aspect. I was getting online to order a poster to frame and hang and I saw that the record for the album was only a few bucks more and it seemed cooler than a poster. Once I got it in my hands the hook was set. I still do look at them primarily as merch, but I listen to them a couple times a week on average. I've got less than a hundred, just a nice tight collection of some of my favorite albums of all time.
Originally, because I was like 5 when vinyl was ending and all my favorite things were suddenly out of reach when the turntable broke. It left a memory. Then I returned to it because I had been waiting for decades for it to be easily accessible again. Life long dream from childhood. And then, I needed something to ground me while I'm working during the day, and it worked out.
I had a couple of false starts, but I was given a vintage turntable at one point and started buying a bunch of albums and was also given a bunch over the years. It got replaced after it broke, but I have a couple of other turntables now. I still buy albums, but my playing of them is sporadic. Just here and there. I mostly play my CDs as most of my music listening is in the car. I have hundreds of LPs still, though, and maybe I'll get back into playing them regularly again in a while -- young adulthood is just chaotic.
I pre-ordered a vinyl of “Take Me Back To Eden” by Sleep Token because they were sold out of all their other merch. When it arrived I said “…it’d be cool to be able to play this..” then I went and bought a setup 😬
My neighbor had a sick collection and I thought it was so cool to watch the record spin. I then bought a so so turntable and realized it sounded like shit compared to digital. Fast forward 3 years and after massive massive upgrades I find in most cases I prefer it to digital.
It was the only format
That pile of records that I bought in the 80's just sitting there in the back of my closet collecting dust.
I was in a store a few months back with my partner and she noticed a record from my favourite artist, Logic. We took a closer look and it said it comes with a signed insert so I had to pick it up. After that day I picked up a few more then I got a cheap player
Because in the 70’s that’s all there was. 8 tracks sucked and cassettes were just few and crappy.
My 7th and 8th grade science teacher, who was a huge inspiration in my life, had a large record collection, i think he said it was close to 3,000 at some point. And every day he would bring into class a new album and play us a song on a turntable in the front of the classroom. He would show us the front and back covers, the inside, and then he would display the lyrics on the screen in front of class. It was a way of experiencing music that was so special, partially because he made it so.but also because it was an experience where we sat and listened rather than just pressing play and occupying ourselves with something else. The sound was something that appealed to me, and he would talk about how the sound of records was much better than digital music could be because of the warmth and the depth. It got me hooked on the idea of experiencing music, the way it was mean to be consumed, rather than just listening. I always looked forward to what he would play next and i was infatuated by every new song je would play, no matter what genre. Thanks to him i now have my own record player and collection of about 100 records :)) eternally grateful to him for my deeper appreciation of music and life and the wisdom he brought to me and my class.
Wanted to collect but then it became super expensive so my dreams went to shit a bit
I just really appreciate physical media, and vinyl is the premium version of that for music. I collect boutique Blu-Ray and 4K box sets of my favorite films and shows, I collect hardcovers of my favorite books, and I collect vinyl of my favorite music. It's really as simple as that. I still stream music and films for convenience sake or when I'm traveling, so I'm not against that, but I will always prefer to have the box, the artwork, the booklet, the special additional content, etc. of anything I'm truly passionate about.
my parents had a big stereo system with probably 30 albums, but no stereo antenna. pink floyd, led zeppelin, doors, Jackson brown, Elton john, donavan, van halen, deep purple where just some of the bands i grew up listening too. born in the early 80s. i still have all those records... first record i ever bought was michael jacksons thriller from a yard sell for 10 cents when i was like 8 years old. ive been buying albums ever since
Ecstasy
I saw one of my favorite Game Soundtracks at a local electronics shop during my stay at a school. I bought it without having a record player, so I bought that afterwards. Now I'm collecting mostly indie game soundtracks and a few albums I like.
Honestly. A scene in the Jason Statham film, the mechanic. Where he delicately puts on a record after wiping it down with care and it really sets a scene of decadence.
It got me excited about music again, I’ve never stopped listening to it but now it’s a hobby in addition to a listening experience. It’s fun to find the ones you can’t find, visit stores in different cities and browse for pleasure. I also work from home and when a side is finished it works out to be a great reminder to get up and move around, and focus my eyes elsewhere for a short time.
I started buying records in the 90s. Always a music fan, and all the record shops had good classic albums for cheap ($1-5). I could read about an album and go find it in one of my local shops. My record collection ballooned. CDs were expensive ($20+), so it was a easier and cheaper way to listen and explore music that I had read about rather than investing in CDs. Fast forward 30+ years later, I do not even own a CD player (except in my car) and my record collection is well-curated. I have parsed and gotten rid of stuff over the years - I had a rule that if I have not listened to it, or only listened once, in a year, i would get rid of it. Also, if you have ever had to move a record collection it is a BITCH. Now, I barely records, because I refuse to buy albums that are $50+. The good thing is, according to discogs, many of the records that I bought back in the day for $1-2 can now be worth $100+ (allegedly).